Coup d’état in Gabon: General Oligui becomes “president of the transition” by taking the oath

putsch The military promised the holding of future elections, without specifying the date

General Oligui, who took power in Gabon, promises “free” elections and “transparent.” — AFP

General Brice Oligui Nguema, who overthrew Ali Bongo five days ago in Gabon, lent sworn in Monday as president of a “transition” of which he has not fixed long-term, promising to install “more democratic institutions” before “free elections”. Putschist soldiers had announced August 30 and the “end of the diet” of Ali Bongo Ondimba, who had ruled Gabon for 14 years, less than an hour after the proclamation of his re-election during the August 26 election, believing that she had Summer rigged.

The next day, they proclaimed: General Oligui, 48 years old, president of a Committee of for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions (CTRI). “I swear before God and the Gabonese people to preserve with all fidelity the the republican regime, “preserve the achievements of democracy”, declared before judges of the Constitutional Court the brigadier general in red ceremonial costume of the Republican Guard (GR), the unit elite member of the army he commanded.

Ali Bongo still under house arrest

General Oligui also promised “free elections” and “transparent” à at the end of the transition period and is committed to à amnesty the “prisoners of conscience”. The Bongo family has ruled this small Central African state for more than 55 years, among the richest on the continent thanks to its wealth. its oil but whose wealth was monopolized by an elite accused of “corruption” “massive” and « bad governance ».

Ali Bongo Ondimba, 64, under house arrest since the putsch, had been arrested. elected in 2009 to the death of his father Omar Bongo Ondimba, who had already died. directed the country over 41 years. The “Patriarch” was also one of the pillars of “French Africa”, a system of political co-optation, commercial preserves and corruption between France and some of its former colonies on the continent. /p>